Many times people in the tech startup world favor the unicorn idea, but the reality of it is you can make a lot of money and personally be very successful, plus make others successful all while not working yourself to death. This requires a lot of focus on making a product/service and being profitable from as early on as possible. In fairness I never worked on a problem that could change the world until what I am doing now, but I am currently in a funded startup where that is our focus.
Personally, in my past, I have done what many in the tech industry wouldn't think is cool or a rocketship, but it changed people's lives, was profitable very early on and we had a hell of a lot of fun, but we would never have been considered on the unicorn track. This is for the businesses I created, I have been part of funded and rocketship startups prior.
But if you could put a business together that would be say, $5-$15M a year in revenue over 5-7 years and profitable at 30-40% where you control the majority stake and it just keeps generating revenue year after year would you be happy?
Honestly you can start this type of business while working a full time job, it requires a bit of time management but you can do it. When I did this as a FTE I would work during the day, come home have dinner, spend time with the kids and wife and than start working on the project at like 9-10pm when kids went to bed, some nights I'd take off for time with the wife too. Then I'd pick one day a weekend and work all day, but stop around 4 or so and spend time with the family. This let me have some balance, but TBH it is still hard, but once things start picking up it gets easier. I will say that if you go this route you have to expect you'll have lean times where it is a struggle, and flush times when things feel amazing, it is a bit of a roller coaster, so you need to have balance and a supportive wife. And you need to make sure you prioritize family times so you don't become the MIA parent.
You are welcome to send me an email (check my profile) if you want to chat about it, having done it I get it is not easy.